Fifty Years Ago

I propose to set before my readers a picture of the country as it was when Queen Victoria (God save the Queen!) ascended the throne, now fifty years ago and more. It will be a p...

The year 1837, except for the death of the old King and the accession of the young Queen, was a tolerably insignificant year. It was on June 20 that the King died. He was buried...

The extent of London in 1837, that is to say, of close and continuous London, may be easily understood by drawing on the map a red line a little above the south side of Regent’s...

Let us, friend Eighty-seven, take a walk down the Strand on this fine April afternoon of Thirty-seven. First, however, you must alter your dress a little. Put on this swallow-ta...

When the real history of the people comes to be written--which will be the History, not of the Higher, but of the Lower Forms of Civilisation--it will be found that, as regards...

The great middle-class--supposed, before the advent of Mr. Matthew Arnold, to possess all the virtues; to be the backbone, stay, and prop of the country--must have a chapter to...

more stout, ate oysters, chaffed bar-maidens, and called for brandy and water continually. He was loud in his dress and in his voice; he was insolent, caddish, and offensive in...

As to society in 1837, contemporary commentators differ. For, according to some, society was always gambling, running away with each other’s wives, causing and committing scanda...

Fifty years ago the Theatre was, far more than at present, the favourite amusement of the Londoners. It was a passion with them. They did not go only to laugh and be pleased as...

On November 20, 1837, the young Queen opened her first Parliament in person. The day was brilliant with sunshine, the crowds from Buckingham Palace to the House were immense, th...

The great schools had no new rivals; all the modern public schools--Cheltenham, Clifton, Marlborough, and the like--have sprung into existence or into importance since the year...

The substitution of the Restaurant for the Tavern is of recent origin. In the year 1837 there were restaurants, it is true, but they were humble places, and confined to the part...

Club-land was a comparatively small country, peopled by a most exclusive race. There were twenty-five clubs in all,[4] and, as many men had more than one club, and the average m...

The ten years of the Thirties are a period concerning whose literary history the ordinary reader knows next to nothing. Yet a good deal that has survived for fifty years, and pr...

There was no illustrated paper in 1837: there was no _Punch_. On the other hand, there were as many London papers as there are to-day, and nearly as many magazines and reviews....

There were many various forms of sport open to the Englishman fifty years ago which are now wholly, or partly, closed. For instance, there was the P. R., then flourishing in gre...

I do not know any story, not even that of the slave-trade, which can compare, for brutality and callousness of heart, with the story of the women and children employed in the fa...

On the science of fifty years ago, much might be written but for a single reason--namely, that I know very little indeed about the condition of science in that remote period, an...

Five thousand three hundred and forty-four enactments have been added to the Statute Book since the Queen came to the throne, and the figures throw a flood of light upon the ‘pr...

The consideration of the country as it was would not be complete without some comparison with the country as it is. But I will make this comparison as brief as possible.